


Never Let You Go

by angelskuuipo



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, GFY, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2676464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelskuuipo/pseuds/angelskuuipo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve manages to save Bucky on the train.  They take on everything after that together, just like always.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Let You Go

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: [this Tumblr post](http://marvel-tags.tumblr.com/post/89318603164/no-not-without-you-give-me-this-au-where-bucky)
> 
> ::spreads hands:: What can I say? I was inspired by the above gifset and tags. I don’t know if this is what the prompter was looking for, but I hope they like it if they read it. I’m not exactly sure how to let them know about this, though. Tumblr is very confusing to me. Some dialogue towards the end is taken directly from the movie. Big thanks to Shanachie for the beta.
> 
> Written: November 15, 2014
> 
> Word Count: 1,849

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Steve felt panic clawing at him as he frantically tried to save his best friend. Bucky was hanging on for dear life, but Steve knew it wouldn’t last. He could hear the bolts holding the rebar giving way. Unable to look away, he dropped his shield as he groped for something- anything- that would extend his reach. His fingers brushed torn cables and he wrapped them around his gloved hand. With hurried a prayer, he gave a yank and felt them give. He didn’t know if they’d be enough, but it was the best he had. Either he’d save Bucky or he’d go down with him.

He leaned out the hole in the side of the train, stretching as far as he could, and felt the cables give a little more. “Buck, you gotta move towards me,” he pleaded.

Bucky stared at him with terrified eyes, but he nodded grimly. Steve held his breath as Bucky fought against the howling wind and tried to get a grip further up on the bar. Steve heard the rebar crack just as Bucky moved again and he lunged forward as the bolts gave way. Bucky screamed and desperately reached for Steve. Their fingers brushed and Steve felt the cables he was holding give just enough that he could wrap his fingers around Bucky’s wrist. The rebar fell away, Bucky dropping as well, but Steve had him. Bucky’s weight dislocated Steve’s shoulder, but he didn’t let go. 

With an adrenaline-fueled pull, Steve heaved Bucky back into the train car. Steve landed on his back with Bucky sprawled out on top of him. Steve’s left arm was useless, but he untangled his right hand from the cables and wrapped his arm around his best friend.

“I got ya, Buck,” he panted into Bucky’s hair.

Bucky, his face buried in the crook of Steve’s neck, just shook his head. After a few deep breaths, he said, “Holy fuck, Steve.”

“I know. I’ll never let you go, not if I can help it.”

“’Til the end of the line, Punk,” Bucky said as he finally removed his face from Steve’s neck and looked him in the eye.

The corner of Steve’s mouth quirked up and he tightened his arm around Bucky’s back. “You know it, Jerk.”

~*~

Two weeks later, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes held each other just as tightly as Schmidt’s _Valkyrie_ crashed into the ice off the coast of Greenland.

Bucky had managed to turn off the autopilot, but other than no longer heading straight for New York, it hadn’t helped much. They’d tried to guide the massive plane towards one of the land masses they could just make out, but it was too damaged from the fight. They were out of time.

They’d said their goodbyes to Peggy and passed on messages for the rest of the Commandos and then turned off the radio. There was no need to make Peggy listen to their last moments. They wedged themselves under a console towards the back of the cockpit on the off chance that they might survive the impact, but neither of them was holding out much hope.

Steve looked at Bucky and tried to smile, but gave it up for a lost cause. Bucky just shook his head and pulled Steve into his arms. “No regrets,” he whispered.

Steve closed his eyes against the tears forming and whispered back, “No regrets.”

Steve felt Bucky move, but didn’t open his eyes. Bucky’s lips brushed across his in a barely there kiss that Steve returned sadly and Steve thought to himself, _well, maybe one_.

The plane hit an ice shelf, slamming them back into the wall, but they didn’t let go of each other. Icy water rushed over them and all too soon, they knew nothing more.

~*~

Steve woke to the play-by-play of a Dodgers game on the radio and a steady beeping sound coming from his left.

He turned his head towards the beeping and saw Bucky lying in a hospital bed next to him. There was an IV in the back of Bucky’s hand and the sound was coming from the machine he was hooked up to. It looked a little different from what he was used to, but Steve had been in and around enough hospitals to know it was monitoring Bucky’s heartbeat.

He sat up and swung his feet to the floor, frowning as he took in the clothes and boots he was wearing. Why would he go to sleep with his boots on? For that matter, what was he wearing? He ran his hand over the material of his undershirt and pants. They didn’t feel right.

The baseball game caught his attention next and Steve frowned even harder. Something wasn’t right. He knew the game that was playing; he and Bucky had _been_ at that game.

Slowly, memories started trickling in: the train, saving Bucky from falling, impatiently waiting for his shoulder to heal so they could go after Hydra’s last base, him and Bucky sneaking onto the Valkyrie, fighting with Schmidt, Schmidt disappearing in a wave of blue fire, Bucky jerry-rigging the nav system, realizing it wasn’t going to work, saying goodbye to Peggy, holding onto Bucky, their first and only kiss, and then…

Then waking up in this room.

Were they dead? Was this Heaven? Steve shook his head. If this were Heaven then Bucky wouldn’t be lying unconscious in a hospital bed hooked up to a heart monitor. Purgatory maybe? No, that didn’t feel right either.

Steve stood up and moved to Bucky’s bedside. Mindful of the IV, he placed his hand on Bucky’s chest instead and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding when he felt the steady rise and fall. The steady beep told him Buck was alive, but _feeling_ it made it more real. He felt bandages underneath Bucky’s gown and pulled the sheet and blanket down to see what was wrong. Bucky’s left arm was missing from just below the shoulder. 

His breath caught and he blinked back tears. “Oh Buck, no,” he murmured.

The door to the room opened behind him and Steve spun into a defensive crouch. He didn’t have his shield, but he was far from helpless and he would protect Bucky with all he had.

The woman standing there held her hands out to show they were empty. “Captain Rogers, it’s all right. I mean you no harm,” she said placatingly.

Steve’s eyes narrowed as he took her in. It was all wrong. A woman with hair that long would never wear it down like that while she was in uniform. Come to that, the uniform wasn’t quite right either.

“Where are we?” he demanded.

“You’re in a recovery room in New York City,” she said.

He shook his head. “Where are we really?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Steve tilted his head towards the radio. “The game, it’s from May 1941. I know ‘cause we were there. Now I’m going to ask you again: Where are we?”

She took a step back, looking apprehensive. “Captain Rogers, please. You really are in New York City.”

Steve wanted to run, to get out, but there was no way he was leaving Bucky. He opened his mouth again to demand the truth, but the door opened before he could say anything. A tall black man wearing a long black leather coat and an eye patch entered.

“Dismissed, Agent,” he growled.

The woman looked between the two men and nodded. “Yes sir,” she murmured as she left.

Steve straightened up and glared at the man. “What the hell is going on?”

The man sighed and closed his eye for moment. “Knew I should have let Coulson handle this,” he muttered under his breath. If it weren’t for his serum-enhanced hearing, Steve wouldn’t have caught it. The man opened his eye, waving his hand at the room in general. “Sorry about all this. We wanted to break it to you slowly.”

“Break _what_?” Steve asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“You and Sergeant Barnes have been asleep, Cap, for almost seventy years,” the man answered.

“Bullshit,” Steve scoffed. There was no way… was there?

The man’s eyebrows went up in surprise, but his voice was even when he said, “The year is 2011. I’m Nick Fury, Director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division, also known as S.H.I.E.L.D. We evolved from the SSR after you and Barnes went down in 1945. The plane was found by a science team near Greenland about a month ago. Imagine our surprise when we realized you and your buddy there were still alive after we started thawing your bodies out.”

Steve stumbled back a step and sat down heavily on the side of Bucky’s bed. It couldn’t be true, but then why would anyone make up such a crazy story? He reached for Bucky’s hand, being mindful of the needle of the IV stuck in the back of it, and wrapped his fingers around Bucky’s wrist. The reassuring flutter of his pulse helped Steve settle down and he took a deep breath then slowly exhaled.

He glanced around the room then back to Fury. “Why the subterfuge?” he asked. He still wasn’t sure he believed the story, but he’d play along for the moment until he could get some solid confirmation.

Fury grimaced. “Our psychologists thought it might help lessen the shock.”

Steve snorted. “If what you’re saying is really true, it might’ve worked if whoever put this together knew their history better.” He thought of the woman who’d first come in and then nodded to the radio that was still relaying the baseball game. “It’s the little details that made it fail,” he said drily.

“We’ll keep that in mind if this kind of situation ever arises again,” Fury muttered.

Steve started to say something, he wasn’t sure what, when Bucky groaned behind him and Steve turned to see his best friend open his eyes.

“Wha’t’fck,” Bucky mumbled as he tried to focus.

Forgetting about Fury and the absolute craziness of their current situation for the moment, Steve grinned, and some of the tension left his body. If Bucky was swearing, then he would be just fine. He squeezed Bucky’s wrist. “Hey, Buck.”

Bucky blinked up at him. “Stv?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

His eyes darted around before landing on Steve again. “Hw?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know, but at least we’re together, right?”

Bucky swallowed a couple of times and rasped out, “‘Til the end of the line.”

“Damn straight.” Steve leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together. “No matter what happens next, I’ll never let you go,” he said softly.

It didn’t matter if they really were in the future. It didn’t matter that Bucky was missing an arm. They were together and that meant they’d get through it all, no matter what.

Steve didn’t think he could ask for anything more.

Bucky tilted his head up and pressed his lips to Steve’s, and as Steve returned the kiss, he thought to himself, _well, maybe one thing_.

-30-


End file.
